After a busy month, Portuguese street artist Vhils, aka Alexandre Farto, headed home to Lisbon to complete this new mural using his unique style. In a matter of days, the amazing artist used hammers to chip away at the wall, creating this exceptionally detailed portrait. He says his motivation for removing layers of walls in order to create his artwork is based on a deeper idea: “Our social system is the product of this same process of layers, and I believe that by removing and exposing some of these layers, in fact by destroying them, we might be able to reach something purer, something of what we used to be and have forgotten all about.”

The process of finding materials on the street and transforming them into his artwork is quite an experimental process. He uses a variety of tools like hammers, chisels, and drills to chip away and to “expose the fragility of what we take for granted and regard as indestructible and unchangeable.”

One gallery says, “Vhils art is poetic, complex, and ambitious, often focusing on the needs we have abandoned in favor of our wants, and the realization that trading pleasure back in for happiness will be a less than straightforward exchange.”